Menendez hit with new foreign agent charge

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government today, adding another charge to the already-shocking federal indictment released against Menendez last month.

According to today’s new superseding indictment, Menendez, his wife Nadine, and Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana “willingly and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to have a public official, [Menendez], act as an agent of a foreign principal, to wit, the Government of Egypt and Egyptian officials” without registering themselves as required by law.

The new charge is particularly explosive given that, for some of the time period covered by the indictment, Menendez was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – making him possibly the single most powerful member of Congress on foreign affairs at the time. (Menendez stepped down from his chairmanship when the initial indictment was released last month.)

That initial indictment alleged that Bob and Nadine Menendez conspired with Hana and two other New Jersey businessmen to trade sensitive information and influence in Washington in exchange for cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz, and more. Senator Menendez was charged with one count each of bribery, honest services fraud, and extortion. 

At his first court appearance on September 27, Menendez pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Today’s additional charge, which was brought by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, will likely further intensify the massive pressure Menendez has faced to resign. Gov. Phil Murphy, fellow New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and a huge number of other New Jersey Democrats have called on Menendez to step down.

Menendez has refused to do so, but his political future is looking bleak regardless. One Democratic primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), has already entered the 2024 race against Menendez, and polling shows the senator to be drastically unpopular among New Jersey voters of all partisan affiliations.